


Now you see me

by Katseester



Category: Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: Developing Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Threesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2018-04-06 20:23:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4235355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katseester/pseuds/Katseester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daisuke sees someone on the Midnight Channel. He assumes it's Kou.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now you see me

**Author's Note:**

> I played [P4 New Days](http://p4newdays.tumblr.com/) and absolutely _loved it_ , and despite bribing people with fake internet money to write a fic for the scenario talked about [here](http://katseester.tumblr.com/post/122226444888/slides-20-dollars-across-the-table-so-who-wants) I felt a mighty need to write it myself.
> 
> I'm not sorry.

**September 14, 2011**

"Hey, are you gonna check the Midnight Channel tonight?"

"Is it supposed to rain all night? Bummer."

"Didn't Hazuki see that weirdo last time? What's his name...Kubo?"

"Ew, no way. Didn't he kill those people? Can you imagine seeing _that_ as your soul mate?"

"Gross!"

The girls gossiping near the shoe lockers dissolve into fits of laughter.

Midnight Channel. Soul mate.

It's been a while since Daisuke's paid any attention to those kinds of rumours. He waits on the fringe of the group until the girls move away from the line of lockers, still giggling amongst themselves, before attempting to leave himself.

Kou jogs up to him as he's unclipping the strap to his umbrella.

"No good?" Daisuke asks. Kou shakes his head, grinning wryly.

"He took off as soon as he saw me coming," he complains, crouching to tie his laces. His voice comes out muffled the next time he speaks. "Wily little guy, that Shirogane."

"Told you he'd be no good," Daisuke says, tossing Kou his umbrella once he straightens up. "You'd have better luck asking Hanamura or something."

They've got an upcoming basketball game against another school, and Kou's team is short one person. One of their members discovered quite abruptly that he was allergic to shellfish and hasn’t been seen in over a week. Kou's been saying he'll make a recovery, just that he ate a lot of shrimp before realizing it could kill him.

Kou hums in contemplation. "Maybe. Wanna stop by Yomenaido? Souji wouldn't stop going on about this book he was reading. I want to see if it's really that bad."

The book really is that bad, and Kou's laughter as he reads through the painful passages pushes any thoughts of rumours or soul mates out of Daisuke's mind.

\---

 **From: Kou**  
**23:54**  
_Ugh, did you write down the formula from today's lecture? I completely forgot_

 **From: Kou**  
**23:55**  
_Thanks in advance!! ;)_

Sighing, Daisuke rifles around in his school bag in search for his math notes before cursing softly. He left that one particular notebook downstairs earlier when his mom started ringing off a grocery list for him to write down - in an odd moment of academic motivation he'd been attempting a stab at his homework a bit earlier than usual, and as there wasn't any other source of paper close by enough to catch the entirety of his mother's rapid-fire list in time his math equations ended up getting some pretty bizarre answers, like  _half-cream_ , or  _green onions_.

Scratching absently at his side he ventures into the dark living room to fetch the notebook (he's fairly certain he can navigate to the coffee table without banging his shins off of anything, though he has been proven wrong in the past), but pauses when he glances at the television.

Midnight Channel. Soul mate.

Can't hurt to give it a shot, right? He glances at the glowing numbers displayed on the DVD player tucked into a nook on the TV stand. 23:59.

Daisuke stares at his own frowning reflection in the blank screen, feeling a little stupid. What if it actually turns on? And if it does, just who is he expecting to see? Just as he's about to tear his eyes away and dismiss the rumour as something completely bogus, however, a faint static buzzes through the air and a soft glow filters through the room.

"Well, shit," he mumbles. "It really does work." There's an undefined figure on the screen. Slight, with short hair. Arms crossed and head tilted almost inquisitively.

Slight. With...short hair...

"No way," he says, just a bit louder, more to fill the room with something other than the television's static than anything.

There's only one person he knows that could fill that description and still be viable as soul mate material.

The screen fades back to black, and Daisuke is left staring at a blank television once more.

His phone vibrates in his hand, and when he checks the message it's Kou needling at him to hurry up.

 _Shit_.

\---

**September 15, 2011**

He can barely look at Kou when they meet up on their way to school. His friend complains about math the entire way up to the school building and Daisuke can sympathize - even with the formula he kept getting the wrong answers (random items of food notwithstanding), though he's pretty sure there was an unforeseen factor playing into his distracted failure at homework.

"Did you, uh, happen to check out the Midnight Channel last night?" Daisuke asks, feigning nonchalance as Kou slips out of his shoes and exchanges them for his school pair.

"The Midnight Channel?" Kou asks, pausing as he attempts to force his heel into the particularly stubborn leather. He glances up at Daisuke, brow creasing in confusion until realization smooths over his features. "Oh, no. I haven't watched that in months. Why?"

"No reason," Daisuke says, perhaps a little too quickly, and the look Kou shoots him is full of questions that he'd really prefer not to answer.

"You're supposed to see your soul mate, aren't you?" Kou wonders. "It was raining last night. Did you watch it?"

It's a question that doesn't really need answering - Daisuke's sure that Kou _knows_ he did, and the unsaid words are hanging in the air between them: _who did you see?_

Daisuke can't meet Kou's eyes. He opens his mouth; maybe to answer truthfully, maybe to deflect the attention away from what he started in the first place, but just as the words start in the back of his throat the bell rings, cutting short any confession or lie he might have uttered.

"Oh crap, we're late!" Kou cries, and in the rush to make it to the classroom before their homeroom teacher any questions left unanswered are completely forgotten.

\---

Kou is really distracting. _Really_ distracting.

Daisuke keeps glancing at him out of the corner of his eye as class progresses, and keeps noticing all these little things that had seemed inconsequential before, but now...now he can't stop thinking about them.

Kou rests the end of his pencil at the corner of his mouth when he's not writing. He pulls his bottom lip between his teeth when he doesn't understand the teacher's point. He sometimes brushes his hair back from his eyes, and Daisuke notices every minuscule detail in the way the individual strands pull loose from behind his ear to fall back into place.

 _Soul mate_.

All of this from furtive glances, less than a minute tops.

Kou is really cute.

 _Shit_.

Kou catches him more than once, giving him an absentminded smile when he does, and Daisuke flushes magnificently before tearing his eyes away, desperately trying to focus on taking notes.

He's always been aware of Kou's good looks - the guy gets a love confession every other week, or so it seems. Kou being handsome is about as new as the takeout box from Aiya that's been sitting in the back corner of his fridge for God knows how long, or the empty stick of deoderant buried at the bottom of his gym bag that he's been meaning to get rid of for a while now. It just exists, and no one really questions it.

So why is it just hitting Daisuke now?

 _Well, that's obvious_ , the more cynical part of him whispers. _You saw the guy as your soul mate on some weird TV rumour channel_. _Duh_.

So Kou is his soul mate. He's known him since they were kids, barely old enough to stumble around on two feet without knocking their heads into anything. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that they're inseparable - _been_ inseparable for well over ten years. Would it be weird to think of Kou as his soul mate? To think of kissing Kou, holding his hand, being with him - well, he pretty much is always with Kou anyway, so that part wouldn't change.

"Agh, what does this _mean_?" he mutters to himself, and at that moment the class goes quiet and all eyes focus on him.

"Is there something you need help with, Nagase?" the teacher asks, twiddling a stubby piece of chalk between her fingers.

"No, sorry," he says, ears burning, amidst the class chattering in amusement. Yeah, yeah. He's not the smartest guy, he gets it.

Kou's eyes are sparkling with supressed laughter, his face in profile as he looks forward and carefully _doesn't_ laugh at Daisuke. Affection unfurls in his gut at the pointed gesture.

Small victories.

\---

He checks out the Midnight Channel again that night. He expects another blurry figure to show up, but when the TV lights up the image is sharp and clear, and the person displayed on the screen - it's not Kou.

It's - Shirogane?

Disappointment pangs within him like a dull echo, back and forth and back again until he can barely stand it.

Shirogane is his soul mate? And apparently isn't as cool and stoic as he makes himself out to be.

He thinks about Shirogane - really tries to put him in the same light as Kou in terms of _soul_ _mate_ \- but he can't. He doesn't feel anything aside from mild confusion.

"This is stupid," he grumbles, and then goes and ignores his homework because if he's learned anything from this entire debacle, it's that he can't think straight when his mind is clouded with all this talk of _soul mates._

\---

**September 16, 2011**

"Oh my god, did you watch the Midnight Channel last night?"

"I saw Shirogane!" A dreamy sigh, a girl deflating a little as she's caught up in her daydream. "I always knew we had something special."

"Shirogane? I saw him too..."

"Huh? But...then that means..."

"My soul mate's a boy...?" A confused classmate who has absolutely no bearing on the conversation, but Daisuke feels for the guy.

"But if he's _my_ soul mate, and he's _your_ soul mate...what does that mean?!"

Daisuke wishes he knew.

"Seems like everyone saw the same guy, huh?" Kou notes, then leans over and neatly plucks a piece of pork from Daisuke's bento. "Never knew Shirogane was such a player." He chuckles, popping the food into his mouth, and Daisuke's stomach does a little flip at the sound.

Yeah, the Midnight Channel is stupid. No way is Shirogane his soul mate.

He likes Kou, Midnight Channel soul mate or not.

Thinking back on it, he's not exactly surprised. Kou's always been someone special to him. Just...not _special_ special. Not until recently, anyway.

Kou smiles at him, making Daisuke feel warm, right before snatching up another piece of pork. Daisuke wonders, fighting him with chopsticks in hand for it back, how it took him so long to figure this out.

\---

**September 26, 2011**

Lightning flashes outside the classroom window, thunder cracks ominously, and then rain starts to patter against the window, playing out a staccato rhythm on the glass.

"Oh crap," Kou gasps. The bell rings to signal the end of lunch hour. "I didn't bring my umbrella."

"We can share," Daisuke offers. In the bustle of his classmates reseating themselves he misses the small noise Kou makes in the back of his throat.

He doesn't realize what he's said until the last bell rings. He'll be sharing an umbrella with Kou - and isn't that some kind of romantic gesture? He recalls a small image carved into the wood of the cubby hole shelves at the back of the classroom: an umbrella overtop of the names Atsuko and Miwa, embellished with a little blocky heart. It's been there since the beginning of the school year and probably a few years before that, if the smooth edges around the grooves are any indication.

Oh, right.

Daisuke feels like giving himself a kick in the ass.

Well, he's already offered. No backing out now.

Kou walks close to him under their shared umbrella. He's unusually quiet.

"This is nice, isn't it?" he murmurs as they wait to cross the street near the shopping district, voice nearly lost to Daisuke under the steady drizzle of rain.

"Yeah," Daisuke says, and Kou starts. He fixes his gaze on Daisuke, eyebrows drawn down, mouth open slightly as if he wants to say something but isn't quite sure how to proceed.

A car horn blares, and Daisuke barely has time to register it before the vehicle speeds past uncomfortably close to the curb and through the rather large puddle in front of them, effectively dousing the both of them.

"Thanks a lot!" Daisuke yells after the retreating tail lights, and Kou starts snickering. His bangs are sticking to his face, and before thinking better of it Daisuke sighs and reaches over to push them out of his eyes.

Kou's skin is warm beneath his fingertips.

He holds his hand to Kou's face perhaps a bit too long, just long enough for the silence to get uncomfortable, but then Kou closes his eyes and leans into the touch, before sighing shakily and pulling away, leaving Daisuke's hand hanging awkwardly in the air.

"Sorry," Kou says, and this time it's him who refuses to meet Daisuke's eye.

An unbidden and sticky thought crosses his mind: _what if Kou likes me?_

The thought hits him like a soccer ball to the stomach. Maybe...he does?

"I don't mind," Daisuke blurts, and Kou's attention snaps back to him. His pale cheeks are pink, and Daisuke doesn't know whether it's from the rain or embarrassment.

What if...?

The light turns green and the sign urges them to cross.

"Ugh, I'm absolutely soaked," Kou says, voice light and cheerful, cautiously pretending what happened moments ago didn't. "Your place is closer. Mind if I come over to dry my clothes?"

 _You're trying to kill me_ , Daisuke thinks woefully. "Sure," is what he says instead.

\---

All of Daisuke's clothes are way too big for Kou, but he has a couple sets of pajamas that are a few sizes smaller for those nights when Kou crashes impromptu at his house. His hair fluffs up after he tousles it dry, sticking out in odd places and giving him a likeness to that of a baby bird.

Daisuke's parents are out of town for the night - his mom mentioned a two-day conference in Okina, and his dad decided to make a trip out of it for the two of them. There's a note tacked onto the fridge about leftovers and that he shouldn't stay up too late, which Daisuke will probably ignore. They play a few video games, argue over whether or not Souji dyes his hair (Kou is for, Daisuke against), and then settle comfortably into the couch to watch an episode of Phoenix Ranger Featherman R, which neither of them will admit to should another classmate ask in the future.

Kou dozes off about halfway through the episode, head drooping to rest on Daisuke's shoulder, and Daisuke allows himself to lean into the contact. Kou's hair is soft against his cheek, and the sound of the dryer tumbling their clothing down the hall in tandem to the soft cadence of rain against the roof is hypnotically calming.

He wakes up when the dryer dings its completion, confused that he's horizontal when he's pretty sure he was sitting vertical just a moment ago.

Kou begins to stir somewhere around his midriff, leaning up on one arm and blinking sleep out of his eyes.

"What time is it?" he blearily asks.

"Uh," Daisuke answers, "late?"

Kou shuffles around, producing his phone. "Not too late." He lets his head rest back on Daisuke's stomach for a minute. "Clothes sound like they're done. Rain looks like it's stopped, too."

"Right."

He immediately misses the warmth as Kou reluctantly heaves himself off the couch. Kou yawns and stretches as he makes his way across the room, shirt pulling up to show off a gratuitous strip of pale skin. Daisuke carefully averts his eyes. He's fallen asleep with Kou plenty of times before this. No need to make it weird.

But...what if?

Daisuke allows himself to dare hoping.

"So, uh...you know how a while back I mentioned the Midnight Channel?" he asks, approaching Kou as he's finishing getting changed, pushing past the lump in his throat.

What if?

"Yeah, you said something about that," Kou responds absently, doing up the last few buttons of his blazer. He turns to Daisuke, frowning. "You never did say who you saw, though."

"Right. About that." He accepts the pajamas Kou passes him and tosses them into the hamper, careful to avoid Kou's inquisitive stare, then decides he's being a complete baby about this and squares his shoulders. "I thought I saw you," he says, and Kou's eyes widen in surprise. "It wasn't you. But I thought it was. And it doesn't matter that it wasn't because I - _wanted_ it to be you."

He's making a mess out of this, and would like to blame the sleep-addled part of his brain for it but he knows better. He's always been crap at romance. Kou is still staring at him, cheeks pink, and Daisuke can feel his own face burning.

"I mean, what I'm trying to say is I thought you were my soul mate. And I wanted you to be. My soul mate."

He doesn't know what he's trying to say. Three simple words, _I like you_ , would suffice, but instead he's spouting off rubbish about soul mates and making himself look more stupid than usual.

"I like you too."

Daisuke's garbled confession slams to a halt. "You - you do?"

He allowed himself to hope, but he didn't actually think that Kou would - or did he?

Kou rolls his eyes, a playful quirk to his lips. He's relaxed into a comfortable pose, weight on one leg and arms crossed at his front. "Well, yeah. I've liked you since first year."

"First - wait a minute." Daisuke runs a hand through his short hair, brow furrowing in confusion. "You've liked me for that long and you never said anything?"

Kou shrugs. "I've been trying to drop hints, but I figured I should wait for you to figure it out."

"Dude."

"I know. I could've been stuck waiting forever."

"Dude!"

Kou laughs, hiding his smile behind his hand. "I'm glad though. I began to wonder if maybe you...didn't feel the same."

"Yeah, well, you know me. Subtlety isn't exactly my forte."

"Oh, I know, trust me. That bit about wanting to be my soul mate was cute, though." Daisuke doesn't know if he'd call it cute rather than embarrassing, but Kou grins at him and bumps his shoulder against Daisuke's as he brushes past into the entryway, and Daisuke is surprised at how relieved he is that nothing has really changed between them. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah."

The door closes, and Kou's shadow under the front light retreats until it's indistinct.

He gets a text a few minutes later.

 **From: Kou**  
**22:18**  
_You wanna stop by Aiya after practise tomorrow?_

 **From: Kou**  
**22:18**  
_Call it our first date. <3_

Daisuke groans at the little heart, even as his stomach does a traitorous flop and his chest swells as though being filled with an over-inflated balloon.

\---

**September 27, 2011**

"You thought I was Shirogane?"

Daisuke flushes and takes his time chewing and swallowing another mouthful of food before answering. "You've got the same hair. And you're both pretty short."

"Yeah, maybe next to a giant like you," Kou retorts, making a gesture with his chopsticks to show him just what he thinks of that.

The restaurant is humming with idle chatter around them, dinner rush in full swing. The chef shouts orders from behind the counter, food sizzling and bubbling out of sight and adding to the general cacophony of a crowded restaurant on a Tuesday night.

They've snagged a table instead of their regular seats at the counter, at Kou's insistence and a quiet, "I need to talk to you about something." Kou keeps shooting shifty looks over Daisuke's shoulder, like he expects someone to swoop down upon them and announce loudly to the entire restaurant that _something_ is up.

They spend the entire meal bantering back and forth, Kou carefully not broaching the mystery subject that's hanging between them, the elephant in the room that might as well be doing a tap dance across the table for how obvious it is.

"So what'd you want to talk about?" Daisuke asks, because Kou is clearly stalling and the way he keeps kneading his lower lip between his teeth is way too distracting.

Kou's attention snaps back to him, lip mid-knead, and Daisuke files it away as one of the most adorable expressions he's ever seen on his best friend's face.

"I'm beginning to think that Aiya probably wasn't the best place for this," Kou says, more to himself than anyone. "But the thing is...wait, is that Souji?"

Daisuke glances back over his shoulder and affirms that yes, Souji just ducked into the restaurant with that first year - Tatsumi, he thinks. The one who beat up his own biker gang, or something. Daisuke's never spent much time around the guy, but he seems pretty decent, and Souji seems to like him. That has to account for something.

"Tell you what," Kou says lowly, face paling. Daisuke can sympathize. Souji is good at gathering info out of seemingly thin air. It's uncanny. "We'll take a walk by the river and I'll tell you then."

\---

The sun is dipping below the horizon by the time Kou and Daisuke stop along a more rocky area of the Samegawa's bank. Kou's mouth is pursed in a contemplative grimace.

"So the thing is," he says slowly, as though he's still working out the words in his head. "I really like you." Cue butterflies. Daisuke wonders if that'll ever stop. "And I want this to work. But my family..." he sighs, scratching behind his ear. "This is where it gets complicated. You know how my family is really traditional. I'll have to get married someday."

Daisuke's stomach drops. He frowns. "So you mean...this is..."

"No," Kou says quickly. "This isn't just some - temporary thing that means nothing to me. This is the real deal. You're my best friend, and I _really_ like you, dummy." He reaches over and slides his hand into Daisuke's, and then squeezes, sending that flurry of butterflies careening through Daisuke's stomach to settle somewhere around his spleen. "When I get married I'm not going to just drop you. But I need to know if you'd be comfortable with that - me seeing other people."

Daisuke's never seen Kou look so shy. He gets it - Kou's family dynamic is one rooted in tradition, and sooner or later Kou will be expected to carry on their line.

He really, _really_ likes Kou. He's probably liked him for longer than he's even realized; it just took that little nudge in the shape of an indistinct figure on the television to make him come to terms with it.

And Kou seeing someone other than him...if it makes Kou happy, who is he to say no? It's not like Kou won't still care for him, if his insistence on _r_ _eally_ liking Daisuke is anything to go by. (And geez, that still sends a shiver down his spine.) As long as they communicate - which Daisuke can't really see a problem with, having spilled most, if not all, of his secrets to Kou already - there's not a lot of things that can be used as a wedge to drive the two of them apart. They've been best friends for most of their lives, and he can't see that changing in the future.

He squeezes Kou's fingers. "I'm fine with it," he says, and all the tight lines on Kou's face disappear into a relieved smile. "In case you haven't noticed, I really like you too, _dummy_." And there it is, a blush springing to Kou's cheeks and ears that Daisuke doesn't think will ever not be cute.

"That's good to hear," Kou says with a little nervous laugh. "And, I mean, you can see other people too, if you want. It's only fair."

"Okay," Daisuke agrees. "We can hammer out the specifics later. But right now..."

The stretch of the riverbank is absolutely deserted. Stars are starting to wink into existence above them, and when Kou meets his eye it's with an unspoken suggestion that Daisuke is all too eager to comply to.

"Can I...?" he asks, even as he's leaning down.

"Please," Kou breathes.

Kou's lips are soft, which Daisuke supposes he should've expected. He touches a hand to Daisuke's side, sighs against the skin of his cheek, and all too soon he's pulling back, eyes unfocused and lips still parted, framing his teeth in a tiny "o".

"Give me a minute," Kou murmurs. "I've been thinking about doing that for ages."

Daisuke snorts, but can't help feeling a little flattered. "Seriously?"

"Shut up."

"I'd tell you to sit down, but it's probably not very comfortable." Rocks, and all.

Kou shakes his head, collecting himself. "We should probably get going anyway," he says regretfully. He untangles his hand from Daisuke's, letting his fingers linger against Daisuke's for just a little bit longer than is necessary, and then they're climbing the slope back to the road, chatting absently until they part ways.

\---

  **October 20, 2011**

Kou hands him an envelope after school.

"I went to the orphanage to find out more about myself," he explains, shoulders drooping, eyes focused somewhere to the left of Daisuke's shoulder. "Sorry for not telling you." His demeanour just screams _defeated_ , and it makes Daisuke's chest feel tight.

He takes one look at his friend's face after he reads it and decides that they're both skipping out on practise.

"Oh, you're home early," his mom calls from the kitchen, and his dad looks up from his paperwork strewn about the coffee table long enough to fix him with a distracted frown.

"Yeah. Soccer was cancelled. So was basketball. We're gonna hang out for a bit."

And without further explanation he pulls Kou into his room, ignoring his mom's call of, "Don't forget to do your schoolwork, sweetie."

They sit close together on Daisuke's bed, fingers loosely interlocked, and after a while Kou lets his head drop onto Daisuke's shoulder.

"Sorry, man," he says, voice quiet and unsure. "Didn't mean to make you miss practise."

"S'okay," Daisuke replies. "You're more important than that. Besides, Souji can keep everyone in line for one day."

That elicits a small chuckle from Kou, but then he sighs and his grip on Daisuke's hand tightens. "I don't mean to be such a downer. I'm glad my little sister was born, it's just that - I don't know. I've gotten permission to do all these things I wasn't supposed to before, but sometimes I feel like I've...lost my place or something. I don't know what to do."

"That's normal," Daisuke says, after taking a moment to think on it. "But whatever happens...whatever you decide to do, I'll stick with you."

"Thanks. Can we lie down?"

He spends a while just running his fingers through Kou's hair until his breathing stops shaking, and pretends he doesn't feel the damp spot on his shirt or see the redness around his friend's eyes.

\---

**November 1, 2011**

"Souji was pretty cute in a dress," Kou comments in the middle of a joint homework session. He's the picture of casual indifference, but Daisuke catches the slight pause in his words, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out there's a note of sincerity to it.

"He was," he agrees, and Kou quirks an eyebrow at him. "He's pretty cute normally, too."

"So...you too?"

Daisuke shrugs. "Maybe. I've thought about it."

He can't deny that more than once he's glanced over at Souji during soccer practise and felt the tell-tale stirrings of nervousness. These things are easier to figure out now that he's gone through them already with a modicum of success.

Kou hums in contemplation, sticking the end of his pen between his lips. "We'll see where it goes?"

Daisuke nods. "Sounds good to me. What'd you get for question four?"

"Uh...'that'."

Daisuke did not get 'that'. "Damn it."

"Here, let me see."

Daisuke is glad that Kou is better at English than him. He makes little notes on Daisuke's sheet where he got things wrong, and instead of observing the corrections and maybe learning from his mistakes, Daisuke spaces out a bit while watching him.

"So I was thinking," Kou says while writing, glancing over at Daisuke and grinning when he notices his expression. "Earth to Space-boy! Hello!" He reaches over and flicks Daisuke lightly on the forehead. _  
_

"Ouch! Dude, why? I was paying attention."

"Sure." Kou raises an eyebrow at him, and Daisuke can see that he doesn't believe him even a little. "Anyway, as I was saying. I was thinking of going overseas to study after we graduate. To help out my family. It'll only be for a couple of years, and I'll be back during the summer."

"Oh," Daisuke says. Just, oh. Something settles uneasily in his gut, but it's so small and unobtrusive that it's easy to ignore. "Well, if that's what you want to do, go for it. I won't stop you."

Kou smiles at him, eyes crinkling at the corners, and leans over to peck him on the mouth. "I'll be sure to send you lots of weird foreign things and sappy letters about how much I miss you, so don't worry."

"I'm not worried," Daisuke mumbles, because Kou is still very close, practically straddling his lap, and he's doing that thing where he's looking up at Daisuke through his eyelashes. It's very distracting.

They don't get much studying done after that.

\---

 


End file.
